Bump...

Given the motley selection of finalists and the terrible editing last night I'm not sure how many people will even care who is through.

I think they are gambling everything on the wildcards and whether they go from before judge's houses to pick them. A couple of 'shock' exits tonight only to be brought back again in a week will seem too transparent, and not especially interesting.

No one who is left is that memorable this year, or good. Only a couple of exceptions. And they are hardly showing any of the singing at all in favour of hearing the contestants say the same things we have heard 1001 times before. Who believes or cares about that anymore? Show the singing, then people might start to care about them.

The production seems really ill-thought out this year, when it desperately needed to try and freshen the show up.

Yep totally agree.....

Someone needs to remind the production team, it's suppose to be a singing competition, not an interview/chat show.

It makes the whole show and the contestants blur into one. It really drags. People can remember stand out performances, not the person who said it would mean more to them than the other people who it means a lot to but not as much as them. It's beyond cliche now, it's just tiresome.

Some of the finalists are almost anonymous, it's all back to front this year. More effort went into people booted out than most of the ones who are left.

That's why I think the wildcard twist might involve them, but then the show just gives away exactly how pre-planned it all is.

I think the time has come for the powers to be to accept that no stunt or trick is going to make the ratings go back up - the return of two former judges, one of them the most talked-about judge of them all, had no effect whatsoever on the ratings. They should concentrate on trying to see the series out as a genuinely engaging singing competition, as this may keep people hanging on - but I fear it's far too late for that.

Yeah, the drama and controversy has been exhausted. In theory then you should fall back on credibility, which they tried and failed already with by involving Barlow. So you need to go further.

The only thing I can think of that would work to achieve that is to dump the sing-offs entirely. It runs counter to the whole scripted nature of the show but that is what is needed to restore the credibility and get the focus back on the singing.

Put the public completely in charge, and in that way you get the excitement back because anyone could go. Unlike being able to call the sing-off before anyone has even sung a note.

Predictions for the ratings for tonight?

About the same, maybe bit more but equally as likely a bit down. Weak finalists, not enough shown of them, wrong ones chopped last week, and all just too familiar now.

The shows are really dragging, and nothing is standing out because barely anything is being shown of them singing. Still hardly a peep about it on my Facebook when usually quite a lot watched it, no one seems to care.

The Sunday episode always rates better than the first one. We could be looking at a 10m average and 12-13m peak, hopefully.

You are ever the optimist

I'm not sure holding off the results till tonight will work though, as there hasn't been enough focus on the actual performances to make anyone care enough. Half of the finalists are also near anonymous because of the way they built up others just to dump them last week.

The show is a dog's dinner at the moment.

It was a really depressing show last night...sob story, ballad, sob story ballad, towie reject, sob story... Have the judges houses always been that dull? I guess the judges and helpers being so boring didn't help (Sharon Osbourne excluded) Seeing the "talent" they have this year, it wouldn't surprise me if the ratings for the lives are terrible. Only hope is if the UK are snowed in the rest of the winter lol

I predict pretty much the same tonight, maybe up slightly. I'll guess a 9m average.

As for the lives, unless some massive game-changer is announced this week, then much the same and possibly downhill from there.

Obviously there's nothing wrong with any show getting 8-9m overnights. But this is The X Factor's ground now, it's no longer capable of previous years' ratings. With the greatest of respect, the endless optimism about a rise in ratings has proved wrong almost every episode. After 10 episodes all generally around the 8-9m mark, we know for sure that this is a trend now. Apart from the final, the live shows aren't inherently capable of bucking that trend.

I'll be watching tonight for the first time since the first audition show. I was going to watch last night but I ended up missing it. I caught up tonight though. It's weird, because I don't know any of them and they're all pretty good. I'm really happy that there's no joke acts this year and there were 3 acts that particularly stood out to me. Hopefully they get through but even if they don't, because I haven't watched before now I'm not as attached as I normally am so probably won't be as annoyed as I often am. Before I watched last nights show I wasn't sure if I'd even watch the lives but I think I will be now because the talents really quite good this year.

well, show is over, now what do we predict it'll get?

the show will always be popular and will always have high ratings

personally i am not a fan. far too much manipulation and its just the same thing every year.

There's been a hell of a lot of buzz and discussion tonight. I actually think there might be quite a rise this time. Either that or the same old viewers have just got chatty!

I think 10million.

It will be the same 8m-9m it's had all run.

It's under 10 million still, and Downton Abbey beat it. Sounds like the peak for XF was 9.8.

Only the Guardian's twitter to go on at the moment though.

I think the average was 9.5m, peak must have been a bit higher, but that rating is disappointing.

It could have still peaked at 11m but I doubt it. I wonder now how badly the live shows are going to rate.

9.46m and 382k on +1. Pretty good, for only the reveal I think. Could be a sign things are improving. But beaten by Downton Abbey for the first time!!!

I'm pretty sure the last auditions episode managed around the same. But we all expected it to beat the 10m mark for this stage of the competition.

What could it get for the lives now?

It's actually going the wrong way, from the ratings thread:


As many of us thought, they dumped the wrong people at bootcamp.

According to Broadcast, last nights show peaked at 10.63m (37.65%), that's without +1.

That peak is the lowest for the reveal of the final 12/16 since 2007 I believe, 2008's peaked at over 11m.

The first live show is going to have massive carcrash potential in an attempt to get attention, especially as the twist is so weak this year and if Christopher gets it will do more harm than good.